Google announced a long-term power collaboration with Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear power operator in the United States, on October 6, 2026: Google has contracted for a combined 3,590 megawatts, all within the PJM grid, the largest in the US. One part is a 20-year power purchase agreement for 890 megawatts, to come from upgrades at 11 Constellation nuclear units; the other is a 15-year supply agreement for 2,700 megawatts. The companies say the deal will enable more than $4.3 billion of new investment by Constellation.
The 890 megawatts do not come from a new reactor
The headline 890 megawatts are not a new plant. They come from uprates: equipment and technology upgrades at 11 existing units in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey that raise thermal and electrical efficiency, squeezing out roughly a large reactor's worth of additional output. Under the announced schedule, power from the first upgraded plants is expected to be delivered in 2028. Constellation says the work will create about 7,200 construction jobs and sustain roughly 4,400 existing ones. The separate 2,700-megawatt supply agreement is not tied to a specific generation source; it works more like a long-term floor order, giving Constellation's operating fleet revenue certainty.
The grid spoke first: bring your own power, or face peak-hour cutoffs
The immediate backdrop is a proposal from PJM's management: data center customers connecting to the 13-state grid should either bring their own power or accept being remotely cut off from grid power at peak times. Both companies say this agreement is a direct response. Over the past two years, tech companies have moved from buying green certificates to locking up power plants outright: Constellation has already signed to restart a Three Mile Island unit for Microsoft and struck nuclear deals with Meta and Amazon, while Google itself partnered with NextEra to restart a nuclear plant in Iowa. Power is delivered on a timeline of years while model training is scheduled by the quarter, and that gap is why the giants are buying electricity years ahead.
The power seller is also buying Google's AI
One easily missed clause: Constellation will deploy Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise to build an "AI for Energy" blueprint for grid operations, aimed at affordability and resiliency. Google is buying electricity from the utility while selling its cloud and models back to it — power deals are becoming a two-way door for AI infrastructure business.
Viewed against the wider industry, the basis of competition is shifting: from model scores and data center counts to who signs decade-scale power contracts first. The cold water is timing. The 890 megawatts only start flowing in 2028, so this deal answers the power question for after 2028, not for the training and inference demand growing every quarter right now. For other data center projects still queuing for grid connections, the bar just rose.
